Ok, second question :D, this one is just musings and curiosity. Will alarm pheromones from one hive stir up a second hive?
I have 3 hives lined up. Two are about 3 feet apart and the third is about 15 feet away from them. Normally I start with the furthest apart hive and work down the line. The furthest is the Mississippi Queens, who were quite pissy their first year. They have turned into quiet docile and sweet young things this year. Hive Number One is in the middle and Hive Number Two on the end and they are closer together. Normally they have been pretty docile, though last fall they were giving me a bit of trouble during the dearth.
This weekend, MQ was again their pleasant selves and gave me no problem. They are full and bringing in some nectar and lots of pollen. HNO is also full and capping honey in the top box. They also were quite nice. Then I popped HNT's lid. They rumbled a little bit. Then when I started pulling out frames, they definitely weren't happy. Got one sting on the hand and several pings in the veil. I almost thought they were queenless by their response. I did see SOME capped brood, and their numbers have definitely increased since my last inspection (this hive is a good bit smaller than the others). There was also some drone brood. I didn't really dig too deep, because they were quite upset and my smoker was on it's last legs. I didn't see eggs this inspection, but had the last time and I did see some capped brood at least. I considered adding a frame of brood (which I will probably do this weekend) just to be safe, but the other hives were all closed up, and frankly I was tired by that time and it was late in the afternoon.
I am curious as to whether they may be responding to the fact that the other hives had put out pheromones when they were opened or whether I should be concerned about these bees. I'm going to start with HNT this weekend to see if their response is different, but was curious about what ya'll thought. Do Hives care about other hives warnings? Or are the pheromones for that specific to each hive?
love,
ziffa